A Car's MPG and Iridium Spark Plugs

If you want it simple to start, I don't think iridium spark plugs effect the car's mpg entirely. My first experience with the iridium spark plug in my car was that it moved a lot faster, that the engine stayed tuned more easily, and the easier it is to have an engine running smooth and easy, the more efficient it is, but technically I can have that result with platinum spark plugs, as far as the tuning goes, but it's much more effort requires re-gapping the spark plugs frequently. So, as a whole, the iridium spark plug will get you better mpg for your car, but not necessarily on the short run. The iridium tip is much smaller than the standard spark plug for the 1990's, which it allows it to get to the self-cleaning temperature faster, prevents spark plug fowling, and allows for the lightning that a spark plug makes to be at the appropriate spark plug gap better than if it was wider. You see, as the materials in a spark plug corrode or erode over time it'll make the lightning go to the side of a plug, rather than the center, and this can throw off the actual distance the spark is going versus what your spark plug gapping tool can measure. This is one of the reasons replacing plugs that work good will save you money, and this is another reason the iridium spark plug will last longer. To learn more about iridium spark plugs, go to my NGK Spark Plug Advantage page.

Update 9 months later: I would have had to replace these iridium spark plugs if they had the longevity of platinum's by now. Not that the platinum spark plugs wouldn't have kept working, but they'd be effecting my car's mpg negatively.

Note: I had the iridium spark plugs in my car since the summer of 2009. It's just now time to check their gap, let alone the fact that I'd usually would have had to replace them by now. Be careful when adjusting and checking gaps on iridium's! The iridium tip for the electrode breaks off easily! When adjusting the prong above them, don't pry against the electrode. Use pliers and just touch the prong that reaches up and over from it's sides. See my 3 spark plug gap articles via this word link spark plug gap.

How about some legitimate hands on for spark plug and wire balancing technique!

by AutoBravado

Car MPG

In honor of this new website - one of many by me if you'd like to explore my profile, you'd only find about a 1/4 of what I've made and taken the time to market, for traffic, not necessarily money - anyway ... in honor of this new blog, where I've promised myself more creativity and less strict creation that matches the concepts that lets you get found on Google - I'm freelancing these skills, feel free to email me if you'd like to pay for plenty of Search Engine Marketing (SEO) tricks, and I've mentored enough students to know that I can teach the skills, but I digress! (I love to digress, thus the more relaxed blog!) The main point: CAR MPG.

What have I learned about the car's mpg (miles per gallon) lately? You can't believe Mythbusters with everything they say. I have data that proves otherwise, and I read a great article online that matches my results exactly, though he has 50 years of experiments proving it, while I just have an about 800 mile trip where it worked great in a Toyota Sienna. The article in question? Acetone in gasoline! On a few occasions, but all the car mpg advice I've EVER given has a tendency to need the old phrase, "Individual results may vary." Because, I admit in the article where I've seen and appropriate amount of acetone in gasoline: 1 to 4 ounces per ten gallons, depending on the vehicle and how you drive depends on how much you put in, and it doesn't work at all in some cars. I give Mythbusters, unlike my colleague's website, (colleague in the sense that he studies the same thing as me, not that we know each other nor do I remember how to get to his website! If I find it I'll share - he has great data!) I give Mythbusters the fair chance that acetone in the gasoline decreased that car's mpg. My colleague suggests that imperfectly timed engines will make acetone do worse, but in my car, I'm sure that it was because the fuel injectors did all too well, making my beloved mpg dive out the back of the exhaust at 4 times the rate it should - ten, not 40 or 50 mpg on that trip! Argh!

3/25/2010
Haven't had enough? I wrote my first internet article once to try to encompass as much as possible the most basic things I knew to better the good 'ol mpg. See: Car or Truck Miles Per Gallon. Note: It's changed gently over the years to be up to date, be smoother, and link to a few more articles.
Two days ago I wrote a new blog. The Truck Miles Per Gallon. The perfect companion to this website: The Car MPG. That new website picked up a lot of traffic early and fast!

4/06/2010
Correction: noticed I'd said the 800 miles was in a Toyota Avalon, but it was a Toyota Sienna, a van. I knew that! :)

by AutoBravado